Morning Gooners. We’ve got our massive game in hand match against Everton tomorrow, but before then I want to focus on the U21’s match yesterday and the latest news about William Saliba’s contract.
I was able to watch the majority of the Premier League 2 match against Chelsea, which saw Emile Smith Rowe and Jabuk Kiwior both start for the U21’s. This is undoubtedly a huge step in the right direction for ESR and a smart move from Arteta to get our new Polish CB some minutes in an actual match. Both players only played the first 45 minutes, but made strong impressions.
As for ESR, he looked like a player who was clearly at a different level to the other men on the pitch. His composure and the details in his game were clearly those of somebody who is a regular at a higher level. The most important thing is to see him come in through the match without any aggravations, but to see him play so much like his normal self was a treat. He easily could have had two goals on the day if not for an amazing performance from Chelsea’s keeper Gaga Slonina. Slonina is a player who has similarly has no business playing reserve team football, but rather should be on loan playing first team minutes elsewhere. He was a regular starter for Chicago Fire of MLS and has been capped by the US Men’s National Team. With that said, it’s great for our youth players to go against players of that level.
As for Kiwior, he was generally untroubled and didn’t have much to do from a defensive standpoint. On the ball is where we were finally able to see the range of passing that seems to be a key part of his game. He looked extremely comfortable with the ball at his feet, but pinged some diagonal balls that were right on the money. This is a guy who just featured regularly for Poland in the World Cup and Spezia in Serie A, but since hasn’t gotten a single minute for Arsenal’s first team. Just getting him on the pitch is hugely important, as there will likely come a time before the end of the season where he’ll be called upon. We are playing twice a week pretty much the rest of the season, so rotation will be a requirement. Especially as a defender, timing is crucial as getting a split second decision wrong can be the difference between a win and draw or draw and loss.
For more thoughts on the match, feel free to check out my Twitter thread below:
The other big news this morning was an update on William Saliba’s contractual situation from Fabrizio Romano:
Extending Saka and Martinelli never really concerned me to be honest. Saka is a Hale End boy living his dream and Martinelli might as well be an honorary Hale End boy who Arsenal plucked from the lower leagues of Brazil and Arteta has managed beautifully. Saliba on the other hand has had a tough go since being bought in the summer of 2019. Being loaned back to France the first season was understandable, but the disasterclass that was him being stuck at the club and in the reserves the first half of 2020 was an embarrassing transfer window/deadline day mistake from Arsenal. Then last season Arteta still not keeping him caused a ton of concern from all parties about if Saliba would ever play for the Arsenal first team. In hindsight, the move to Marseille was a masterstroke for his development. He’s come back into this season’s squad as an absolute beast and borderline undroppable. Yes, he’s made some mistakes, but he’s a young defender. That’s simply par for the course and an inevitable component of playing a 21 year old CB. His value has skyrocketed and put the Frenchmen and his agent in a dream position as his contract reaches the crucial two year point. There’s always been concern that Saliba hasn’t forgiven the club for the past, but it seems that those worries have been alleviated given his lifelong love of the club and his role in this team. He’s formed an incredible partnership with Gabriel who is only 25 and just put pen to paper on a new long-term contract. We’re a young team with a young manager doing incredibly special things. Of course he should want to stay and it’s so good to see that he feels that way as well.
Taking a look at contracts at the club, we only have Reiss Nelson up at the end of this season and assuming Saka and Saliba sign on then only Xhaka, Holding, Elneny and Jorginho up at the end of 2024. You’d assume Xhaka is extended, Holding is sold and we have a team option on Jorginho. Elneny we can extend forever if we want to, he’ll always stay. The 2025 contracts are the ones we need to start work on once Saka and Saliba are signed. Those players are Partey, Odegaard, Tomiyasu, Turner and Ramsdale. Odegaard and Ramsdale are the no brainers nobody will argue with. Partey is a 99% no brainer with the 1% being his injury record. Tomiyasu and Turner should be retained as well, but I think those depend a bit more about the will of the players. Is Tomi okay constantly fighting for his place? Will Turner want to be a number 1 elsewhere?
That’s it for today. Big match tomorrow against Everton, which I’ll plan to preview in the morning.
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